July 26, 2013 Coats Museum NewsLast week you read that the Harnett County Hospital in Dunn was one year old and had increased the number of rooms from 33 to 40, bassinettes from 6 to 8, and employees from 10 to 26. Wonder if John C. Stewart had been a patient there. I do know that he died in Raleigh at the age of 57. His funeral was in the Gift Primitive Baptist Church in Coats. He was survived by his second wife, Mrs. Lettie Honeycutt Stewart (Harnett County News November 6, 1941).Grand jurors continued to crusade for better jails in Harnett towns. The jury recommended that Coats officials remodel the town hall so races and sexes would be segregated as prescribed by law (Harnett County News November 27, 1941).Wonder if the Coats town officials asked, “Are you kidding? It took us years to get this cage and now you tell us to get three more cages to accommodate races and sexes.” By November 27, the Coats officials responded that they would partition the existing one cell or they would construct a jail (Harnett County News November 27, 1941).Dr. George L. Fuquay, a retired Coats physician, died in Fayetteville. The 49 year-old doctor had retired due to poor health. He had been one of the leading physicians in Coats since 1925. He was called into the Army after finishing Oglethorpe. His brother, a dentist in Coats, C.G. Fuquay, was in the Army at the same time (Harnett County News December 4, 1941). Both men served in WWI.A Coats merchant had found a novel way to retail liquor. He turned a water spigot and whiskey flowed from a pipe leading to a tank in the attic of his store (Harnett County News December 11, 1941).Why would he have to do that? I do know that the year was then 1942 and the world was in turmoil. Too fresh were the images of “burning battleships, painfully wounded soldiers and unrecognizable corpses” (Daniel, Clifton, editor, Chronicle of the 20th Century, page 531, Mt. Kismo, N.Y.: Chronicle Publications, 1987). Within two hours of unremitting attack, the Japanese planes had sunk or seriously damaged eight U.S. battleships, including the great Arizona and 14 smaller ships, obliterated 200 aircraft, killed over 2,000 seamen and almost 400 other people and wounded another 1,300 (Daniel 531).The Americans were still stunned; but the Americans, as always, rallied around the red, white and blue banner of democracy. The fate of millions of Jews was in the hands of the Nazi leaders who put together a program they called the “final solution”. The Nazis decided death was the fate deserved by those they called sub-humans. Many were killed like cattle in concentration camps and others were put to work doing manual labor. FDR asked Congress to raise taxes to finance the largest proposed budget in the nation’s history. Fifty-three billion dollars was earmarked for the war effort.Despite the war headlines, life went on. If a young man was not in uniform, the desired attire was a zoot suit with a real pleat and a long watch chain looped from the waist to the pant pocket. The lindy hop was out and jitterbugging was in. Female jitterbugs wore swirling skirts and turned down socks and saddle shoes. There was more going on than jumping and jiving. Though life was less grim than in Europe and the Pacific, changes were occurring in America because of the war. Meat, coffee, butter and shoes were scarce. Gas and oil shortages changed the way things done. Metal appliances vanished from the stores. Citizens held scrap metal, rubber, and cooking fat drives. Many invested in war bonds. The government agencies ran things: fixed wages and rents, settled labor-management disputes, limited racial discrimination, allowed censorship, opened overseas mail, and controlled the news reports. Women entered the workforce and got equal pay for equal work in the war effort. “Victory Gardens” sprang up in unlikely places. Forty percent of all vegetables came from 20 million gardens because Americans were hoeing and hoping for peace (Daniel 542).In Grove Township and in the Coats Baptist Church, lovely Madeline Keene, daughter of Mrs. Flora Keene and the late Walter M. Keene, married William Holt Heritage of Greensboro on December 27, 1941 (Harnett County News January 8, 1942).Coats businessmen launched a campaign for a bank in Coats. The Bank of Harnett had closed its doors in the early 1930’s and had consolidated with the one in Erwin. Professor Leslie Campbell gave a “pep” talk. Owen Odum was toastmaster. W.E. Nichols listed the town’s assets as: 5 churches, 2 schools, and 30 businesses of various kinds. (Can you put a name to those assets?) B.F. Parrish, one of the town’s oldest residents, spoke. Mr. Nichols, Dr. Fred Fleming, and Attorney Bernard McLeod were on the board to get a new bank. A board to ration tires and tubes in Harnett County included J.B. Williams. That month 29 passenger truck tires were rationed to one in seven classes eligible to purchase rubber goods. Do you understand that? R.D. Ennis, J. Manley Willis, T.O. Beasley, and James McLamb were called to jury duty. The Harnett County Board of Commissioners thought the Harnett County Hospital in Dunn should repay its $3,000 loan. In the schools, the students became involved in the war efforts of collecting scrap metal (Harnett County News January 8, 1942).Two teachers resigned from the Coats Consolidated School staff-Mrs. Joe Elaine Mattox and Mrs. Ruth Summers Ball. Before an application was filed to get a certificate for a new tire, inspectors had to make a report about the tire to be replaced. The inspectors in Coats were C.G. Stewart, Elvis B. Powell, A.R. Byrd and Howard Barnes. (Can anyone guess what these gentlemen had in common?)The Turlington Home Demonstration Club had met and had 17 members on roll. The club was participating in gathering old papers, tires, batteries, rags, and saleable junk to be sold to Mr. Baer in Dunn. The club also helped toward farm food production going toward the war effort (Harnett County News January 15, 1942).Two of our museum volunteers, Joyce Turner and Becky Adams, were delighted to open the museum on a Saturday morning to give Joyce’s sister- Pat Nordan-and her son’s family from Alabama a special tour. We will have given tours to members of the Ennis Clan from the annual Ennis Reunion and to the Coats Senior Citizens Center when you read this column. The tour guides enjoy sharing information about our 38 exhibits and are interested to see the response from the visitors as they respond to the museum and its hundreds of artifacts that some recall seeing on the farm or at a grandparent’s or great-grandparent’s home. We encourage others to come to the Coats Museum.A big thank you goes to John and Joy Tricoli of Orlando, Florida for adding their name to the “Impact Sponsor” plaque in exhibit hall. We enjoyed giving them a tour late Sunday afternoon and thank you to Dr. Ronnie Nordon of Alabama for his generous contribution to the museum. Both donors are relatives of our faithful volunteer Joyce Parrish Turner who is great-granddaughter of town founder, J.T. Coats. H.L. Sorrell, thank you for your memorial donation to the Coats Museum Endowment to honor the birthday of Nell P. Williams.